UN International Computing Centre

The United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) is the largest strategic partner for common, trusted, and cyber secure digital foundations across the entire UN system. Through state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure, digital tools, cybersecurity, cloud, data and AI solutions, UNICC promotes progress toward a more connected, secure, and sustainable UN.

With over 50 years of experience, UNICC supports the digital transformation and future of the UN family and other international organisations, delivering scalable and innovative solutions through a cost-effective and shared services model. This approach empowers our partners and clients to accelerate the adoption of required technologies to better serve global needs.

Digital activities

UNICC provides the digital foundations that support the digital transformation and future of the UN system and other international organisations.

These digital foundations consist of a comprehensive, modular, and integrated set of secure, scalable, and adaptable technology, infrastructure, tools, platforms, and services that underpin and support digital transformation and digital-native initiatives. They provide a robust yet flexible blueprint for implementing digitalisation across the UN and international organisations.

UNICC is committed to accelerating the UN’s digital transformation in alignment with UN 2.0 and promoting digital-native processes and solutions. Impactful solutions must be built on strong and secure digital foundations, designed and governed by principles and structures unique to the UN ecosystem.

Digital policy issues and tools

UNICC has over 50 years of experience in ICT, digital, and cybersecurity services. As the largest digital strategic partner for the UN system, UNICC designs and deploys transformational digital tools and programmes to support over 100 UN and international organisations in fulfilling their mandates. Its model maximises the shared services approach and generates economies of scale to benefit its partners. UNICC has been the go-to strategic partner for digital business solutions for UN programmes, funds and entities since its inception.

UNICC offers a full range of services and solutions built upon industry best practices, international standards, and documented business processes subject to a Continuous Process Improvement cycle. The unique business environment of UNICC requires a workforce that is versatile and skilled in deploying and supporting diverse technologies. It demands knowledgeable staff who are familiar with UN goals, ethics, regulations, business, and technology environments.

Artificial intelligence 

A dynamic hub of resources for efficient and responsible AI deployment

AI presents a significant opportunity to modernise and streamline the United Nations system, enhancing its capacity to address critical global challenges. By leveraging AI, the UN family can strengthen and improve its support to Member States, ultimately driving greater efficiency, better results, and accelerated progress toward the SDGs. The UNICC AI Hub offers expertise, resources, and a collaborative environment to advance AI initiatives across the UN system and other international organisations. It operates in alignment with UN standards, principles, and ethical frameworks to ensure the responsible use of AI. 

The AI Hub will connect the UN system with cutting-edge AI technologies and key leaders in the AI sector. UNICC is cultivating strategic partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders – including leading technology providers, academia, governments, and technology-focused foundations—to enhance support for its partners and clients in AI deployment. In that regard, SandboxAQ, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services have joined the UNICC AI Hub as technical partners.

UNICC and Humane Intelligence have also joined forces to develop AI governance tools and infrastructure for the efficient and responsible deployment of AI within the UN system. This partnership aims to create a structured approach for assessing the societal impact of AI models, establish a foundational AI governance framework, and promote sustainable AI solutions globally. 

UnifyHR: GenAI transforming HR operations across the UN family

In a significant leap forward for HR operations within the United Nations, various UN agencies have collaborated to develop and deploy UNifyHR, an advanced Generative AI tool to streamline human resources (HR) operations and policy management. Initially conceptualised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this tool benefits from the technical support and development expertise of the UNICC and the participation of 13 UN agencies: IAEA, ICAO, IOM, ITU, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNOPS, UNRWA, UN Women, and WFP.

The UNifyHR Chatbot is powered by advanced Generative AI technology and offers HR operations teams rapid, multilingual access to critical HR policy information from across the participating UN organisations. This innovative tool leverages cutting-edge AI capabilities to simplify the retrieval of complex policy data, enabling HR professionals to respond more quickly and accurately to inquiries. The result is enhanced productivity and better data-driven decision-making, aligning with the UN’s broader goals of improving institutional effectiveness and digital transformation efforts.

UNDP’s AIDA portal 

Artificial Intelligence powers UNDP’s Evaluation Office solutions

Independent evaluation offices play a major role in gleaning and sharing years of evaluation knowledge and experience for UN agency programme delivery. This is never an easy task. Finding valuable information is time-consuming, methodical, and often manual, with multiple sources and document types to process.

In partnership with UNICC and Amazon Web Services, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched AIDA 2.0 (Artificial Intelligence for Development Analytics), with new analytical capabilities in 2023. This cutting-edge solution streamlines the scanning of more than 6,000 evaluation reports to understand keywords, context, and intent using AI capabilities, returning meaningful answers to complex questions. New features include sentiment analysis, pattern detection, topic modelling and summarisation, and data visualisation.

With UNICC’s support, UNDP’s AIDA portal is accessible to Evaluation Office staff who want to learn from past evaluations to improve programme design and delivery, offering an innovative solution to search, find, and share lessons learned and build on successes from country programmes worldwide.

UN Digital ID

UN Digital ID to provide the UN workforce with a universal, easy-to-use, system-wide identity

UN Digital ID is a unique identity for each UN staff member, from onboarding to retirement. Having a unique identification across the UN system not only reduces data fragmentation and duplication but also simplifies and streamlines processes and transactions across all business functions between staff and organisations, and among UN organisations themselves. As a data exchange platform, UN Digital ID will allow staff from participating organisations to share any of their HR and related information with complete visibility, consent, and security.

UN Digital ID is part of UN 2.0, the UN Secretary-General’s push to achieve an efficient and data-driven transformation. 

Cloud computing 

UNIQCloud – A secure private cloud environment for the UN system

UNIQCloud is a private cloud solution specifically designed for the UN system and other international organisations. UNIQCloud is built on open-source technology using the OpenStack platform, ensuring end-to-end transparency, flexibility and accountability.

UNIQCloud features include multi tenancy for efficient resource utilisation, on-demand access, and continuous improvement, as well as agility, resilience, scalability, and security. It was developed using energy-efficient practices and carbon offsets in line with the Greening the Blue initiative.

UNIQCloud is designed to enhance and complement diverse cloud models adopted by UN entities and provide support for business continuity strategies. It offers pricing stability and predictable terms governed by UNICC’s Management Committee. 

Cybersecurity

A cyber secure digital environment for the UN family

UNICC’s cybersecurity services cover oversight, governance, and threat intelligence sharing, as well as advisory services and a spectrum of programmatic and operational components. UNICC Cybersecurity has grown its global programme to serve over 50 UN partners and international organisations since its inception in 2017. 

Services range from the Common Secure Threat Intelligence Network of over 40 UN organisations to maturity assessments, ISO certification support, SOC and SIEM support, as well as security incident response and forensics, business continuity management, and industry-standard operational processes.

UNICC is certified with ISO 27001 and was awarded a 2020 and 2017 CSO 50 Award for its Common Secure Information Security services, demonstrating outstanding business value and thought leadership. 

The Cybersecurity Fund for the UN System

Bolstering cyber-resilience across the UN family

UNICC’s Cybersecurity Fund (CSF) is a direct action to address the recommendations made by the UN Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and is designed to complement UNICC’s capacity as the UN system’s ‘Cyber Hub’, developing and offering shared services and solutions to enhance the UN cybersecurity posture. Over the next several years, the CSF will be supported by voluntary contributions from Member States to provide a dedicated stream of

funding for critical cybersecurity functions, achieving a baseline standard of security and capabilities, aligned with UN system-wide priorities and best practices.

International Criminal Investigations

Innovative technology and partnerships for international criminal investigations

The United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) partnered with UNICC and Microsoft to support advanced data management for accountability in UNITAD criminal investigations, with UNICC offering Microsoft Azure hosting services, development, data and analytics, and cognitive services.

UNICC Data and Analytics, Application Development, and Cloud Infrastructure teams supported the collection, preservation, and storage of evidence in the form of images, audio, video, and digital text files that have been recovered from sources in the field. This solution streamlines evidence in independent criminal proceedings to hold members of ISIL accountable for the crimes they may have committed.

The partnership helps UNITAD fulfil its mandate in a more efficient and cost-effective manner by creating new business opportunities for UNICC clients and partner organisations to leverage for similar challenges with this innovative technology.

Social media channels

Facebook @unicc.ict

LinkedIn @UNICC

Twitter @unicc_ict

YouTube @UN International Computing Centre